


Bleeding Hearts

by fuzzballsheltiepants



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Bad Flirting, Charitable impulses, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Winter, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 20:05:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16729854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzballsheltiepants/pseuds/fuzzballsheltiepants
Summary: An excessively attractive stranger comes into Andrew's bookstore looking for warmth after giving his coat away to a man in need.  Extremely bad flirting ensues.





	Bleeding Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to @tntwme for the beta! Any remaining mistakes are my own.

The annoying little bell on the door jangled.  Andrew suppressed a sigh as he glanced up from his book.  Two women, wrapped up in coats and scarves and hats so only their eyes were visible, laughing at some private joke.  They quieted down and began browsing the shelves, and he turned back to the book. It was an overrated piece of trash, but people kept asking him about it so he had to force himself through pretentious imagery and false-deep dialogue, if only to tell his customers not to waste their money.

The minutes dragged by, and he cursed that the idiocy he was reading was getting a foothold in his brain.  He just knew he would wake up at two a.m. with, “Talent is its own expectation, Jim” floating over and over and over again in his head, until he was ready to scream just to interrupt the sound of it.  One of the women came up and dropped a paranormal romance novel on the counter, color staining her cheeks. As if he cared she was reading about vampire dick.

The pair left with a blast of arctic air that swirled through the shop and made Andrew shiver.  He pulled his sweater sleeves down farther over his hands, so only his fingertips stuck out to turn the pages.  This was idiotic, he thought, glancing around the store. He should just close for the day. Nobody was going to be dumb enough to come out in this weather when they could order all the books their hearts desired online.  Though, fuck Amazon. Not for anything in particular at that moment, just in general.

He was beginning to doze off in his chair when the door opened again, the bell startling him awake.  A man rushed in, shoulders hunched, cheeks rouged with cold. The idiot was wearing nothing more than a turtleneck and jeans, his feet covered in barely-functional sneakers and no coat, no hat, no gloves to be seen.  That was the first thing Andrew noticed. The next was the man’s striking ice-blue eyes as they met his.

“I’m sorry,” the man said, and his voice was a pleasant tenor, warm and round despite the chattering of his teeth.  “I’m not going to buy anything, but can I just hang out for a little bit and warm up?”

Andrew stared at him a little too long before shrugging and turning back to his book.  It became much harder to concentrate with the man puttering around, glancing at travel books before settling in the meagre sports section.  Of course, someone stupid enough to go out in this type of cold without a coat would be a jock. And of course, Andrew’s sly glances noted, his body would support that theory, all lean hard muscle under his clothes.  Even if his face was too pretty to belong anywhere but the pages of a magazine.

One of the times he was watching the man looked up and caught him, and he willed his cheeks not to warm as he quickly turned his attention back to his book. Andrew’s self-control finally kicked in, and he kept his eyes strictly on the pages until the man cleared his throat nearby.

“Hey, I just wanted to say thanks before I head back out there.”

Andrew let himself look then.  The man was no longer shivering but his face and hands still had that fish-skin color of someone whose peripheral circulation was not quite operating at its full potential.  There was an earnestness in his expression that grated on Andrew’s nerves, and made him wonder why he was wandering around so spectacularly underdressed.

There were cubbies with sweatshirts underneath the counter next to Andrew’s knees, and he found himself reaching down and snagging one in the appropriate size and tossing it over the counter.  The man caught it and shook it out, studying the line sketch of the fox sitting on a book that graced the front of it. “Foxhole Books. Nice shirt, but, uh, I don’t have any cash on me.”

“Did you get mugged?” Andrew didn’t really care, but he was curious.

“No,” the man said, a sheepish smile pulling at his mouth that Andrew would not let himself look at.  “I, uh...I gave my coat to a homeless person.”

“A bleeding heart,” Andrew said dryly, not bothering to keep the mocking note out of his voice.

The man snorted, looking more amused than offended.  “Yes, I’m sure you’re above all that, working here in this independent bookstore.”

Andrew couldn’t think of a good response to that, so he just shrugged and looked back at his book.  “Take the shirt, don’t take the shirt, whatever. It’s your hypothermia.”

There was the quiet rustling of the shirt being pulled on and then the man said, “Thank you.  I’ll come back and pay for it, I walk past here almost every day.”

The man was reaching for the door when Andrew asked, “Why did you do it?”

He froze and looked back at Andrew, who set his book down on the counter at the bleakness in the man’s eyes.  “Do what?”

“Give the homeless guy your coat.  And, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess you gave him your cash too.”

Annoyance flickered across the stranger’s face and Andrew didn’t think he was going to answer.  But then he said, so quietly Andrew had to strain to hear him, “His hands.” At Andrew’s arched eyebrow he elaborated.  “Their hands always get me. Just...they were almost blue, and chapped, and the knuckles were cracking. And I...well.” He gave a humorless laugh.  “So I gave him my coat, and my gloves, and my hat. And yes, my cash, though I only had like, ten bucks on me anyway. I have another coat at home, but he doesn’t have that luxury.”

He took a deep breath.  His hands were shaking, and Andrew didn’t think it was from cold anymore.  “So, yeah, if you want to call having some basic fucking human decency being a bleeding heart, I guess I am.  You know what?” He reached over his head and tugged the sweatshirt off, flinging it back at Andrew. “I don’t want your charity if you only extend it to people who look like me, and not the people who really need it.”

Andrew shook out the sweatshirt and folded it carefully, then stood.  “What,” Coat Guy said. “You want to get into it?” His hands were clenched into fists but while his knuckles had scars there were no calluses, and though he had a few inches on Andrew he lacked his breadth and bulk.  That didn’t seem to deter him any. He glowered at Andrew while Andrew gathered his own coat and gloves and pulled a hat on before swinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“It’s five o’clock,” Andrew said, heading for the door.  “Want a ride?”

“What?”  The man stared at him, nonplussed.  “I thought…”

“Oh, don’t worry, you can keep yelling at me.  It’s closing time, but don’t let that stop you.”  He picked the sweatshirt up off the counter and shoved it into the guy’s arms, then opened the door and shooed him through it.  When he turned around from pulling down the grate over the storefront, Coat Guy was still standing there, though he showed a rare lick of sense and had put the sweatshirt back on.  “You coming with me, or were you looking to get frostbite?”

Andrew headed down the sidewalk without waiting for an answer.  After a few yards he heard feet settle into stride next to him. “You don’t know where I live.”

“I was assuming you did.”

The man snorted.  “It might be out of your way.”  Andrew didn’t reply and they rounded the corner side by side.  Eddie was in his usual spot, in the lee of the doorway to the apartments above the shops.  He had on an almost-new coat and a knit hat and gloves that he had definitely not been wearing that morning.  Andrew glanced at the stranger, then swung his backpack around and pulled out a paper bag.

“Hey, there, Andrew,” Eddie said with a nod as he took the bag.  His brow creased and he looked inside. “There’s two sandwiches in here, did you not eat?”

“Wasn’t hungry today,” Andrew grunted.  Eddie would protest if he found out Andrew had made him extra this morning after looking at the weather report.  “Nice coat.”

Eddie grinned as he jutted his chin at the stranger.  “This dude. This dude right here is a good dude.”

Andrew’s mouth twitched up.  “Want a ride?”

“Nah, man.  I ain’t gonna dirty that pretty car of yours.”

“But you’re going to the shelter.”  It wasn’t a question. “It’s going to fill up early in this cold.”

“Yeah, I’ll head over soon.”  

Andrew nodded and turned away, waving his hand when Eddie called after him, “See you tomorrow!”

They were nearly to the parking lot when the stranger spoke up.  “You know him.”

“One of these days Eddie’ll accept a ride,” was all Andrew said in response.  He could feel blue eyes boring into him but he just hit the button on his key fob and his car’s lights flashed.  “Where do you live?”

Coat Guy gave an address, Andrew punched it into his phone and studied the little map before shutting his phone off and putting the car in drive.  The seat heaters kicked in and Andrew noticed the way the stranger nestled himself into the warmth. They had driven four blocks in silence before the man broke it.  “You give him food.”

“Every day I work.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the man rubbing his face with an elegant hand.  “I’m sorry. I thought…” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know what I thought.”

“Leaping to conclusions is a boring exercise.”

They pulled up in front of what turned out to be a grocery store.  Andrew put the car in park and looked at the people bustling in and out.  A few flakes of snow drifted down and melted as they hit the car. The man made no move to leave and Andrew took his time studying him, not shying away when he returned the look.  The air in the car seemed to crackle, and Andrew would not have been able to look away if he had wanted to.

“Thanks for the ride,” the man finally said, sounding oddly reluctant.  He popped the latch on the door, but was slow to push it open. With a last nod, he got out and headed up the sidewalk, hunched against the wind, then turned up a side street and disappeared from view.

*****

A few days drifted past, with flurries of snow that couldn’t perform the simple courtesy of sticking and giving Andrew an excuse to not open the shop.  So he drank his mocha and finished his annoying book, then moved onto the mystery that his cousin had been raving about. It was close enough to the holidays that there was a steady trickle of customers, with a run on the little leather-bound journals he had ordered in on a whim. But the blue-eyed stranger never reappeared, coat or no coat.

Saturday rolled in, and with it, Nicky.  The store was almost as busy as they ever saw it, aided by the release a few days prior of the next installment in a best-selling fantasy series.  Nicky for once was kept so busy that he couldn’t be too overly annoying, and the day rocketed past at a pace that had Andrew regretting he had ever purchased the damn place, even though he knew this day alone would cover his rent for the month.  

The shelf of the fantasy series was emptied yet again, an over-eager teenage girl breathlessly announcing to her mother, “I got the last one!”  Andrew let Nicky deal with them with his wide grin and bouncy enthusiasm and headed downstairs to get another box of books. He paused in the tiny staff area to open up the box and gulp down another mouthful of his long-cold mocha when the door jingled and he heard a voice that should not have been so familiar.

“Oh.  Hi. Uh, is Andrew here?”

“Of course he is, cutie!  Just grabbing some more books.  Anything I can help you with?”

“No, thanks.  I’ll wait.” Andrew peeked through the curtain that separated off the staff area and stairs from the rest of the shop.  Nicky was blocking his view, but he was certain, absolutely certain that voice belonged to his Coat Guy.

He didn’t know why he felt compelled to check his reflection in the small mirror that sat over the little bench that held the microwave.  Shaking his head at his own ridiculousness, he hefted the box and pushed through the curtain and past the counter, steadfastly ignoring Nicky and the man standing by the door who was, in fact, Coat Guy.  

“Andrew!”  Nicky waved at him a little too wildly, his eyes too wide and his smile too knowing.  “This customer is asking for you!”

Andrew debated just walking past and stocking the books to see what the man would do, but Nicky would no doubt embarrass him if he did.  So, with as big a sigh as he could muster, he walked to the counter and stood there, waiting.

The staring contest was stretching past awkward and verging on uncomfortable before Coat Guy broke the silence, rubbing the back of his neck with one sheepish hand.  “I, uh...I came to pay for the sweatshirt?” He glanced a bit nervously at Nicky, who was looking between them with the biggest heart-eyes Andrew had ever seen.

Andrew glared at Nicky, arms crossed, until Nicky blinked and took a small step back.  “I’m just going to go restock these books,” he said, giving Andrew a wink on his way around the counter.  Not bothering to suppress his eyeroll, Andrew turned back to Coat Guy. Once Nicky had disappeared among the shelves with his box of books, the man gave him a tentative smile.  “I don’t want you to get in trouble for helping me.”

Andrew blinked at him a couple of times, not totally sure how to respond to that.  He settled for ignoring it. “Not going to yell at me anymore?”

A small smile played at the corners of the man’s mouth.  “I mean, I can, if you want me to, but that wasn’t the plan.”  He fished into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, holding it up as if in offering.

A loose line was forming nearby, the handful of people buzzing restlessly at the empty counter.  Grumbling under his breath, Andrew went around to the register and waved at the first person in line.  The woman glanced at Coat Guy and then went hesitantly to the register. Andrew scanned her books, ignoring the feel of amused eyes on him from the vicinity of the door.  He worked his way through the short queue, and at the end of it Coat Guy shifted so he was leaning across the counter.

“Seriously, how much are the sweatshirts?”

“I didn’t give it to you because I expected to get paid for it.”

“I know, but I don’t want you to get in trouble with your boss.”  

Andrew could see Nicky’s head peering over the stacks, watching them; he disappeared as soon as he caught Andrew looking at him and there was the audible thump of books being set out on the shelves with unnecessary force.  “That’s not a problem.”

Coat Guy blew out a frustrated sigh.  “Why won’t you let me pay for it?”

“What’s your name?” Andrew asked in lieu of an answer.  The man stared at him, wariness warring with something that could not possibly be interest in his eyes.  “You know mine, it’s only fair.”

“Neil.”  He said it slowly, quietly, as if he was handing over something precious.

Andrew didn’t really know why the simple confession of a name made an unfamiliar warmth spread through his chest.  “I should have been the one.” Neil looked at him blankly, so he clarified. “To give Eddie a coat.” He didn’t add that he hadn’t even thought of it; that he had become somewhat inured to seeing Eddie there in his threadbare clothes week in and week out.  The pain of his oversight was still almost sharp enough to make his breath catch, or maybe that was the look in Neil’s eyes as he stared Andrew down.

“He’s not your responsibility.”

“He’s not yours either, but you still did it.”

Neil chewed on his lip for a moment.  “At least let me do something for you.  The sweatshirt, the ride...you probably saved me from losing a toe to frostbite or something.”  

Andrew arched an eyebrow at him, wondering if he even knew what this sounded like.  Neil’s cheeky smile in response made Andrew suspect he did, at least after the fact.  “Something.” He kept his tone flat, forcing himself not to blink or look away. Behind Neil, Nicky’s head re-appeared, mouth open in a comic “O”.  

“Yeah, something.”  Neil shrugged an elegant shoulder.  “Dinner, maybe?”

“You’re asking me to dinner.”

“Well, it’s that or I give you the cash, but...”

Andrew snorted.  “But…”

“I don’t know, I think dinner might be more fun.”

Behind the stacks, Nicky was gesticulating wildly.  A couple of browsing customers looked askance at him and he dropped his hands abruptly, one connecting with the bookcase with a loud smack.  Neil turned around at the noise but Nicky had disappeared from view again, no doubt curled over his hand in fully-deserved agony. Muttered curses emanated from that general vicinity, and Neil looked back at Andrew.  “Uh, is he okay?”

Andrew shrugged.  “It’s his own damn fault for being a fool.”  He didn’t bother to keep his voice down and Nicky appeared at the end of the row to glare at him.  Neil looked between them, back to chewing his lip. Andrew wanted to reach up and manually pull his lip from his teeth.  He was pretty sure he could find better ways for him to occupy that mouth, not that he would say so. But Neil caught where he was looking and shifted into a quick flash of a smile.

“So what do you say?” Neil asked.  “I think you close in a few minutes, right?  There’s a good Italian place down the street.”

Andrew glanced at Nicky, who was back to vibrating with excitement, bruised hand forgotten.  He was never going to get Nicky to shut up about this, whichever decision he made. Neil was looking at him steadily with his too-pretty eyes, nothing pushing or pleading, just patient.  

The last few customers left, only one actually purchasing anything, a boxed set of middle-grade books that Andrew would never admit to still re-reading at least once a year.  Neil watched him bag it up, still lounging across the counter in a way that was making Andrew imagine all sorts of illicit things. After the door closed behind the lady with a cheery jangle, Neil shot Andrew a secret smile.  “I love those books,” he murmured, a shameless co-conspirator.

Andrew fixed him with a stare.  He could not be real, this man. Not that Andrew had ever been prone to daydreams, but if ever he had set out to dream up a person...Andrew shook himself.  “Let’s go.”

It was the most sullen possible acquiescence, but Neil lit up like a Christmas tree.  He was almost hard to look at, with his soul shining in his face like that. Nicky was doing a silent dance that Neil hopefully was not noticing and Andrew tried hard not to regret all his life decisions as he predicted the next few weeks of constant Nicky bubbliness.

A minute later they were out on the street, pulling up their collars against the wind.  Silence stretched between them as they walked up the street, the quiet sending Andrew’s brain into overdrive.  He glanced at Neil walking alongside him, hands buried in his pockets, expression unreadable. _This was a mistake_ , that little voice he hated whispered in his mind.  He could feel his heart rate kick up, and he twisted his fingers in the strap of his backpack hard enough to hurt.  

No.  He would not allow this to be ruined by his own miserable brain.  He breathed in for a count of four, matching four steps, then out, matching four steps.  By the third round he no longer felt ready to choke on the nothingness, and then they were in front of the restaurant.

The entrance was decorated for the holidays, little evergreens wrapped in twinkle lights standing guard on either side of the door.  Before they reached the door, Neil turned to him, forehead creased. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Andrew waved his hand.  “Trying to back out on your promise?”

“Definitely not,” Neil said, face serious.  “But I feel like maybe I guilted you into this.”  Andrew started to open his mouth, no doubt to say something he’d regret for a month’s worth of three o’clock in the mornings, but Neil went on before he could.  “I mean, just because I wanted an excuse to get to know you doesn’t mean it’s fair to you.”

“Why?”  Andrew realized Neil didn’t know what he was asking.  The words in his throat were thick, sticking to him, wanting to crawl back down.  He spat them out. “Most people would take the free sweatshirt and not give a damn.  At most, they’d mail me a check or something, but they’d probably never think twice about it.”

“Most people suck,” Neil said.  “Most people wouldn’t give a homeless guy food every day.  Most people don’t see what other people need to make the world a little less unbearable and do what they can to fix it.”  His mouth twitched up in a smile that yet held too much grief. “But you aren’t most people. Even if you do insist on calling me a bleeding heart.”

“I never said I wasn’t one myself.”

Neil laughed, the brightness of it driving away the melancholy that weighted down the air between them.  Andrew was done for, bewitched, more than halfway to obsessed after spending only an hour in this man’s presence.  He couldn’t bring himself to mind. Maybe tomorrow, he’d come to his senses and object to the way he had been so easily swept under.  

But that was a problem for tomorrow.  For now, he followed Neil into the restaurant, unable to resist the gravitational pull of that particular star, unwilling to even try.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I swear I have no issues with Infinite Jest, but it is a book basically written to be mocked. Hope you all enjoyed! HMU on Tumblr @fuzzballsheltiepants if you wish.


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